Improved washing-machine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

i JAnvIs T. MUDGE, oF CLEVELAND, oriio.

IMPROVED WASHING-MACHINE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,4LE5, dated April25, 1865.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, .Mavis T. MUDGE, ofCleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga. and State of Ohio, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Washing-Machines; and l do hereby declarethe following to be a full and exact description of the saine, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, making part of' thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a plan of my improvedWashingmachine. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same in the line a;x, Fig. l, showing more clearly the interior construction thereof.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the twofigures.

The principal object of my invention is to obtain great mechanicalpressure for squeez` ing clothes, with the application of but verylittle strength on the part ofthe operative.

.A further object is to` adapt the plunger of a washing-machine to beretracted or elevated with greater facility by preventing its surfacefrom being overspread with water when forced down upon the clothes, allas will be hereinafter fully explained.

In order that others skilled in the art to Which my invention appertainsmay be en abled to fully understand and use the same, I will pioieed todescribe in detail its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the vessel or tub to containthe water and clothes, which may be of any suitable form andconstruction. At one end of the tub A is an arm, B, which projects toabout the center of the tub, where itis connected with the plunger Cthrough the medium of the rod or link c. `The end of the arm B isWeighted atb, the weight serving to wholly or partially counterbalancethe weight of the plunger C, and thus permit the latter to be easilyturned up on the edge at which it is hinged, (c c representing thehinges,) prepar atory to being forced down upon the clothes to squeezeor compress them between itself and the bottom of the tubA.

To adapt the weighted arm B to be vibrated, it is attached to a piece,D, which is hinged at d d to the tub A. A vibratory movement is giventhe arm and the plunger C raised and depressed by means of a lever, E,fastened to the hinged piece D and braced by the rod F. This leverenables the operator to vibrate the arm B so as to raise the plungerwith very slight exertion, the weight at the end b preponderating afterthe starting of the plunger, and completing the elevation of the same.When the lever E is depressed and the arm B vibrated so as to press theplunger down upon the clothes, the momentum of the weight insures anaccumulation of force and theplun ger is brought down with great powerupon the clothes, thoroughly compressing them and squeezing ont thewater.

It is manifest that to increase the iinpingiu g power of the plunger thearm B may be weighted at both ends, and this I propose to do should itbecome advisable.

I do not claim to be the originator of the l idea of employing weight ormomentum to increase the efficiency of a washing medium, but confine myimprovement to the use of Weights in connection with plungers of thekind represented.

By the use of weights, as described, the cffective pressure of theplunger when operated by one person may be increased to more than thatwhich could be produced by the combined strength of several operatives.

In theplunger area number of holes through which the water passes onbeing displaced by the descent of the plunger. these are tubes Cf, whosepurpose is to receive the water as it comes up through the perforations,and thus prevent it from overspreading the surface of the plunger. Itistrue that the perforations or holes would allow the water to returnbelow the plunger, but it must necessarily consume time in doing so, andhence a quantity of the water would add its weight to that of iheplunger during its elevation. water from ovcrtlowin g the plunger, butcause its more speedy return to a position below the saine.

The plunger with the tubes has no essential connection with the weightedarm B, and I intend to use in connection with such arm aplungcrcoustructed in any of the known ways.

It is immaterial to the invention whether the tubes O be made separatelyor in one piece with the plunger; but in practice it may be foundpreferable to employ simple holes or chambers of suicient depth tocontain the displaced water and prevent its overflowing the plunger, asexplained.

Over and within The tubes not only prevent the vHaving thus described 1ny invention, the -Wibli the plunger C. to prevent the water fromfollowing s what I claim as new herein and overowing and adding Weightto the latter,

desire to secure by Letters Patent as explained.

l. The plunger G, moving in in vertical plane upon the pivot 01' hingesc', and operated by JARVIS T MUDGE' a. system 0f levers, substantiallyas herein de- Witnesses scribed. OGTAVLUS KNIGHT,

2. The use of the tubes C', in connection ALEXR. A. C. KLAUCKE.

